“Amazon leases office space near Empire State Building” by Jay Greene at Seattle Times. “We have leased this building primarily as corporate office space and we intend to sublease to other tenants the ground-floor retail space,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman said. Amazon has no current plans to open its own store in the space.” Read more

 

“Best Buy’s Big Q3 Surprise” by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “(Best Buy) reported its first sales lift in nearly two years and a near doubling of profit, shattering analysts’ expectations. And in another surprise, it did so with little help from the most-watched new product of the year: the iPhone 6.” Read more

 

Ferguson: Best Buy Store to Close on Black Friday if Grand Jury Decision Comes by Julie Bosman & Alan Blinder at NY Times. “When we find out that the grand jury is going to give its decision one way or the other, we will close at least one of our stores at that time in order for our customers and employees to be able to get home safely in case there are protests,” said Jeffrey Shelman, a spokesman for Best Buy.” Read more

 

“Latinos’ Love Affair With ‘Clubbing'” by Roberto Siewczynski at MediaPost. “Shopping for the Hispanic shopper is not necessarily a quick individual chore, but rather something done in a more pluralistic way (e.g., 141 index to shopping with spouse, 180 index to shopping with children). The in-store experience, in particular, is quite important, with ambassadorship being a key influencer.” Read more

 

“Dollar Tree posts best same-store sales growth since 2011” at CNBC. “Dollar Tree’s same-store sales rose 5.9 percent in the third quarter ended Nov. 1, beating the average analyst estimate of 4 percent, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.” Read more

 

“Dollar Tree expects to shed 500 stores — or fewer — in Family Dollar acquisition” by Jennifer Thomas at Charlotte Bus. Journal. “The current process with the FTC is what we expected many months ago,” (CEO Bob Sasser) said. “This is a large merger involving many stores, and it simply takes time for the FTC to analyze documents and data.” Read more

 

“Texas: Costco previewed by approximately 5,000” by J.Werner at The Woodlands Online. “We’re amazed at the turnout,” said Azita. “We didn’t think this many people would be here.” “We’ll definitely shop here for our business, but we’ll probably do it on a weekday,” said Dr. Reger.” Read more

 

“Better move fast! Amazon pushing deals to Snapchat” by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “To kick off its Black Friday specials, Amazon on Thursday announced that it will start posting deal codes to disappearing messaging app Snapchat, which can then be redeemed during checkout on its site.” Read more

 

“Buffalo: Stores Still Closed from Snow Storm” by Samantha Christmann at The Buffalo News. “Three Wegmans stores that have been closed since Tuesday, 370 Orchard Park Road in West Seneca, 4960 Transit Road in Depew and 3740 McKinley Parkway in Blasdell; are still closed.” Read more

 

….Some Tops Stores are Open but Don’t Look for Milk, Bread or Eggs at The Buffalo News. “About 10 Tops stores located in areas hardest hit by the storm are open and will remain so, but are “operating in a very limited capacity in terms of associates and products,” according to Katie McKenna, a Tops spokeswoman.” Read more

 

“How Obama’s plan on immigration will enrich Wal-Mart” by Diana Furchtgott-Roth at MarketWatch. “The company’s GoBank is especially helpful to those without bank accounts or with only basic accounts who can benefit from additional banking services.” Read more

 

“FBI takes cyberattack fight in new direction” by Cory Bennett at The Hill. “Normally, we’d be driven by the victims,” Comey explained. “Which companies have raised their hand and said, ‘We’ve been hacked,’ and then we would assign the matter to that field office.” Instead, the threat will get assigned based on the dangerousness and complexity of the threat. Then, up to four regional field offices will be tasked with assisting local hacking victims after the initial threat has been assigned to.” Read more

 

“Former Amazon employee plans hunger strike” by Todd Bishop at GeekWire. “What choice do I have? Crawl back home and move on? That’s not going to happen,” he replied.” Read more

 

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